1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to a digital video disk (DVD) player and a reproduction control method thereof. The present invention is based on Korean Application No. 96-25205, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a digital video disk (DVD) is a storage medium for storing image and audio information. The data stored in the digital video disk may be categorized into two types: presentation data and navigation data. The presentation data is compressed audio and video data. The navigation data is control information used to reproduce the presentation data. The control information may be the sequence in which the presentation data recorded on the disk is to be played, for example.
A digital video disk player can perform an interactive playback in which a user can communicate with the player during playback. On the other hand, a conventional video cassette recorder or compact disk player can only perform simple playback.
Accordingly, a system microcontroller which controls the DVD player reads playback control information from a disk and stores the information in a buffer memory. The system microcontroller subsequently reproduces the audio and video data on the disk, with reference to the stored playback control information as needed.
However, when the playback control information stored in the buffer memory is to be used in the conventional DVD player, the playback control information must be transferred to another memory controlled by the system microcontroller. Furthermore, since the conventional system microcontroller has an internal memory of very small capacity, an additional external memory is generally used. When this external memory is used, the number available ports of the system microcontroller is reduced. As a result, a device such as an expander must be used in addition to the external memory, thereby increasing costs.